The twins were due any time now and the Hodson family was in a holding pattern, trying to keep everyone’s needs met so that when the babies arrived, everyone could manage.

Aston was a huge help with Charlotte and Emily, because he would play with them without even being asked.

The could entertain themselves quite well these days, too.

It was a good thing, because carrying her second set of twins, at Lexie’s age, was not easy.

She felt well enough, though, to talk about books with Aston. Now that he was in the upper grades at elementary school, and reading well, he also enjoyed discussing books instead of needing to be read to.

Lexie still had quite an appetite, even with the due date quickly approaching.

One day when a storm front had come in, Lexie started to feel the familiar contractions becoming more regular.

When they went to bed that evening, she told Raine she thought the babies would come tomorrow, if not during the night.

A couple of days later, they were home with the new babies. The oldest, Harper, was a girl, and the younger, Arlo, was a boy.

Lexie nursed while Raine, who was taking time off, entertained Emily and Charlotte, helped by Aston. Emily was excited about having a baby brother and a baby sister. Charlotte, who was very quiet, hadn’t said anything yet.

Aston disappeared into his room one afternoon and finished his first landscape.

It had been a rainy spring, and the day they brought Harper and Arlo home, lightening struck the front door and it caught on fire. Raine had to run to the rescue.

Thankfully, he was able to put the fire out without injury, or losing the door. He immediately called for a lightning rod to be installed on the house.

He was also grateful that none of the children or Lexie were traumatized by the event. When he went back inside, everyone was going on with life as normal.

Lexie was enjoying the infants, and with all the help, was able to relax that everyone’s needs were met.

April 2023

In April, Charlotte (green), and Emily had their fourth birthdays. After Harper and Arlo’s birth, they’d moved upstairs to their new, big-girl bedroom, which they were pretty excited about.

It has been a long time since I’ve let sims have this many kids! With Pippi, the dog, that makes 8 though, so at least they won’t be able to have more (or can they have one more? I don’t remember for sure if pets count towards he limit of 8). I have no doubt that Raine and Lexi will autonomously try for baby as soon as possible. I think I set her ideal family size to 7 because she wants to “marry off 6 children,” and I don’t think Aston will count since he is Raine’s son and by the game engine’s accounting, probably not hers. Could I change that in SimPE or with the insimenator, do you think?

It was a HUGE relief to age Charlotte and Emily up to children, although they were so self-sufficient, for toddlers, since they slept on the quilts on the floor and were potty trained the last play session.

Ayre’s families that I had to randomly roll are almost all between 6 and 8 sims so that is going to be a challenge although they are supposed to move out as soon as possible once they are teens in the Medieval Charter Challenge.

Pets don’t count towards the household limit. You can have 8 sims and 2 pets. So um…watch out if you don’t want them to have another!

As for having Aston count towards Lexi’s LTW, I’m 99% sure it’s more complicated than just making Aston her son in SimPE/InSim. I think you’d actually have to add some sort of memory or marker in SimPE, which I don’t personally know how to do.

Thanks for the information, Carla. I guess that I will probably let them go ahead since the whole point of letting them have so many up till now is based on Lexie’s want. I usually don’t even do that one because it seems absurd and it takes a lifetime but in this case I sort of wrote it in to her bio.

One of my worst frustrations with sims 2 is when the game doesn’t recognize sim’s children or grandchildren.

Charlotte and Emily are adorable as toddlers and children. Thank goodness they’re children now and can tend to their own needs. This would have been crazy with them as toddlers! Once Aston is a teen, they’ll have an extra set of hands to help too. Excited to see Harper and Arlo grow!

Thanks, I think they are adorable and so glad they are kids now! I noticed on your post about Love & Flour that Paloma’s twins were in two different baby outfits. Then later that week I came across Chris Hatch’s mod to dress infants and figured that must have been how you did it. But I’d already played and posted this, so Arlo and Harper are in their identical warm fuzzy suits.